Monday, February 29, 2016

Who Really Votes for Trump?

It's ironic that it takes the BBC to tell the truth about who is really voting for Donald Trump. In an earlier post, I pointed out how few people vote in primaries. That is exactly the reason Trump is so far ahead. It is the loudest, most unhappy, and least informed voters who are supporting his brand of vitriol against anyone who doesn't like his way of thinking.

America now stands where Germany stood in 1928. We are on the cusp of a change that only bodes ill for the freedoms our Founding Fathers tried to guarantee. It has been too long since those days when the memory of oppression on a national scale was fresh. We have too long had the ability to speak our minds, to freely move from place to place, to be successful and gain wealth through hard work. Our nation has become soft from its ease. Its people have become petulant and dependent on the dole. We have allowed ourselves to be convinced by the media and the government that we are all victims of one thing or another, that social justice is missing from our lives.

If every American was required to live on the economy of a third-world nation for a minimum of 5 years, they would realize just how privileged they are to live in this country. Ninety nine percent of Americans have no concept of real poverty. Our official level of poverty would equate to better than a living wage for most of the developing world. Our "poor" have cars, televisions, cellphones... The world's poor are lucky to have clean water.

Make no mistake. If Americans will not exercise their right to vote, they will lose it.

It starts innocently enough, with a blustering clown who spews populist poison. It develops into something worse, something ugly, something that grows and spreads and overcomes. As was recently pointed out by another commentator, Hitler didn't start out as a dictator. He was the rightfully elected Chancellor of Germany. The people put him in office.

Hitler was elected by his own people. By the discontents, the ones who felt the government was giving them a raw deal. He fed on their anger and fear. He told them what they wanted to hear.

Just like what Trump is doing today. True, all politicians use that tactic to gain power, but this is the first time in a long time that an American public has responded to it so viciously. For that, we can thank our media. We are plugged in to our televisions and movies, all of which have taught us we are the best in the world, the only ones who have the right to judge what is right and wrong. We are the most powerful nation, have the best technology, the most money.

We have been taught we are the master race without using that term in so many words.

If you are Republican, for God's sake, don't pass up your chance to vote. If you do, you will be complicit in what this nation becomes. I hope you can live with that.

The Commentator

I have been writing speculative fiction for over 40 years, but only
recently have I been able to pursue it full-time. After retiring from
my position as an air traffic controller, I decided to devote myself to
my writing, not realizing I was trading one stressful career for
another. Nevertheless, through my short fiction and novels, at least I
have an outlet for my obsession with the written word.